Exodus 27:2

27:2 You are to make its four horns ¹  on its four corners; its horns will be part of it, ²  and you are to overlay it with bronze.

Exodus 38:2

38:2 He made its horns on its four corners; its horns were part of it, ³  and he overlaid it with bronze.

¹ sn The horns of the altar were indispensable – they were the most sacred part. Blood was put on them; fugitives could cling to them, and the priests would grab the horns of the little altar when making intercessory prayer. They signified power, as horns on an animal did in the wild (and so the word was used for kings as well). The horns may also represent the sacrificial animals killed on the altar.

² sn The text, as before, uses the prepositional phrase “from it” or “part of it” to say that the horns will be part of the altar – of the same piece as the altar. They were not to be made separately and then attached, but made at the end of the boards used to build the altar (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 363).

³ tn Heb “its horns were from it,” meaning from the same piece.